[OPLINLIST] FW: The 27th Annual Virginia Hamilton Conference on Multicultural Literature for Youth April 7 & 8, 2011 Kent State University

[Burrier, Carolyn]

There is still time to register!

 

From: Continuing Ed [mailto:ContinuingEd at kent.edu] 
Sent: Wednesday, March 09, 2011 2:37 PM
To: BRODIE, CAROLYN; Burrier, Carolyn; BOON, BELINDA;
'wcowen at neo.rr.com'; 'Jaime.declet at cpl.org'; 'teenlibrarian at smfpl.org';
HARPER, SARAH; 'lmolnar at cuyahogalibrary.org'; NICHOLS, MARY;
'nespecas at neo.rr.com'; 'dtirpak at orange.k12.oh.us'; SANDMANN, ALEXA;
'janridgeway at gmail.com'; Cunningham, Flo; STEVENS, ANGIE;
'jhill5 at toast.net'; MANNA, ANTHONY; SANDUSKY, MARY
Subject: The 27th Annual Virginia Hamilton Conference on Multicultural
Literature for Youth April 7 & 8, 2011 Kent State University

 

Renowned poet and activist Nikki Giovanni to receive Virginia Hamilton
Literary Award

27th annual Virginia Hamilton Conference on Multicultural Literature set
for April 7 & 8 at Kent State

 

 

Details:

27th Annual Virginia Hamilton Conference on Multicultural Literature for
Youth

7 to 9:30 p.m. Thursday, April 7; 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Friday, April 8

Kent Student Center, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio

Registration costs and information: 

http://virginia-hamilton.slis.kent.edu/

 

 

Kent, Ohio - Poet and activist Nikki Giovanni will add to her acclaim in
April when she receives the Virginia Hamilton Literary Award at Kent
State University. The award will be given at the 27th Annual Virginia
Hamilton Conference on Multicultural Literature for Youth, where
Giovanni will deliver the keynote address at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April
7, in the ballroom of the Kent State University Student Center.

 

The conference, which this year is themed "Voices, Visions and Verse,"
provides a forum for discussion of multicultural themes and issues in
literature for children and young adults. In addition to Giovanni, this
year's program features Coretta Scott King award-winning author and
photographer Charles R. Smith Jr. and Caldecott Honor Book award-winning
illustrator Chris Raschka. 

 

The conference opens Thursday evening, April 7, with Giovanni's address,
followed by a special poetic performance by the Kent State Wick Poetry
Center and area elementary and middle school students, with musical
accompaniment. 

 

On Friday, April 8, the program includes presentations by Smith and
Raschka, as well as local and national speakers leading workshops on
such topics as notable books for a global society; the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame's "using music in the classroom and library"; Mahjong,
World War II and ethnic Chinese cultural representation; Appalachian
children's literature; and an update on the newest multicultural picture
books, to name a few. Participants also can attend a conversation
session with the three featured presenters.

 

"Virginia Hamilton and Arnold Adoff are good and dear friends," Giovanni
said.  "I am incredibly thrilled to receive this award named for one of
the great children's authors.  I cried all the way through The Planet of
Junior Brown and actually had the nerve to turn Zeely into a play.
Winning this award is one of the highlights of my life."

 

"Nikki Giovanni's work speaks for itself," said Dr. Carolyn Brodie,
conference director and professor in the School of Library and
Information Science at Kent State University. "We're delighted to be
able to honor her in this way. She truly speaks to what this conference
is about and what Virginia Hamilton stood for."

 

Giovanni is a world-renowned poet, writer, commentator, activist, and
educator. She published her first book of poetry, Black Feeling Black
Talk, in 1968, and within the next year published a second book, thus
launching her career as a writer. Early in her career she was dubbed the
"Princess of Black Poetry," and over the course of more than three
decades of publishing and lecturing she has come to be called both a
"National Treasure" and, most recently, one of Oprah Winfrey's 25
"Living Legends." Giovanni's books have received numerous honors and
awards. Most recently, her children's picture book, Rosa, about the
civil rights legend Rosa Parks, became a Caldecott Honor Book, and Bryan
Collier, the illustrator, was given the Coretta Scott King Award for
best illustration. Rosa also reached #3 on the New York Times bestseller
list. Among other honors, she was the first recipient of the Rosa L.
Parks Woman of Courage Award and has also been awarded the Langston
Hughes Medal for poetry. The author of some 30 books for both adults and
children, Giovanni is a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia
Tech University in Blacksburg, Va. 

 

Chris Raschka received a Caldecott Medal for The Hello, Goodbye Window
and a Caldecott Honor Award for Yo! Yes? Publishers Weekly has called
him "one of the most original illustrators at work today." His A Poke in
the I: A Collection of Concrete Poems, a critically acclaimed anthology,
was both a New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Children's Book
and a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. 

 

Charles R. Smith Jr.'s photographic exploration of Langston Hughes' My
People received the 2010 Coretta Scott King Award for illustration. In
other works he combines writing, photography and sports, as in his first
book, Rimshots, a collection of stories, poems and "other stuff" mixed
with gritty black and white photos. His recent work celebrates those who
have inspired him, such as Muhammad Ali in Twelve Rounds to Glory, and
subjects that have interested him since childhood, such as The Mighty
12, which celebrates Greek gods and goddesses. 

 

The Virginia Hamilton Conference is the longest-running event in the
United States to focus exclusively on multicultural literature for
children and young adults. Honoring author Virginia Hamilton, the
conference reflects a commitment to promoting cultural awareness and
affirming cultural pride while addressing the array of issues which
surround the concept of culture. The conference is held each April at
Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, and is sponsored by Kent State
University's School of Library and Information Science, the College and
Graduate School of Education, Health and Human Services and the Office
of Continuing and Distance Education. Additional support is provided by
Akron-Summit County Public Library, Cleveland Public Library, Cuyahoga
County Public Library, Hamilton Arts Inc. and the Kent State University
Bookstore.

 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.oplin.org/pipermail/oplinlist/attachments/20110309/81edba42/attachment-0001.html